When a trailer is coupled to a motor vehicle (i.e., a tow vehicle), the trailer's total tongue weight, or the portion of the trailer's total weight that presses down on a hitch of the tow vehicle, is applied directly onto a rear section of the tow vehicle between a rear axle of the vehicle and the hitch. If left uncorrected, the trailer may transfer weight from the front end of the tow vehicle and cause the vehicle's suspension to lift (see FIG. 4A). This weight transfer may cause trailer sway, reduced steering and braking responsiveness, less traction, and misaligned head lamps when the vehicle is towing the trailer.
Towing weight distribution systems, such as, for example, weight distributing trailer hitch systems, are designed to assist in restoring the geometry of the tow vehicle to its natural state. This may be achieved, for example, through spring bars coupled to the hitch that provide a lifting force to the rear of the tow vehicle, which may transfer the load exerted by the trailer correctly back over both axles of the tow vehicle. In other words, similar to the handles of a wheel barrow, the bars of the weight distributing hitch may lift the rear of the tow vehicle to restore a portion of the load to the front axle of the tow vehicle.
Such weight distributing trailer hitch systems may, for example, be adjusted to provide an appropriate amount of load restoration for a given trailer load. In this manner, prior to towing a trailer, a driver of the tow vehicle may set a front axle load restoration (FALR) for the weight distributing trailer hitch based, for example, on a manufacturer's recommended FALR (i.e., the amount of FALR recommended by the vehicle's manufacturer to restore the geometry of the vehicle to its natural state).
Properly setting the FALR for a weight distributing trailer hitch is, however, a difficult task for most drivers, who generally do not have access to vehicle scales that may accurately measure the amount of weight that is transferred from the front axle of the tow vehicle (i.e., to the rear axle) by the trailer. Accordingly, most drivers currently rely on imprecise measurement techniques, utilizing, for example, a tape measure to estimate a height change associated with a front wheel of the vehicle (e.g., a height change between a wheel lip and a front fender) to determine the required FALR.
It may, therefore, be advantageous to provide systems and methods for setting the FALR for a load distributing trailer hitch that are both accurate and simple to use. It may be further advantageous to provide systems and methods for setting the FALR which utilize existing vehicle sensors to calculate the required FALR for a driver.